Her entire body burned as she eased on the gas. She did not want to go back home, but she knew she had to. She was coming from her boyfriend’s house, which made it so much harder to leave. He was the definition of comfort and love for her. And to leave that to come home to her father….
She drove 15 under the speed limit, and paused for almost a minute at every stop sign. She refused to cry; she had shed enough tears over driving home to that monster who called himself a father. She sat at the last stop sign, refusing to drive thru it. She clenched her teeth together in an effort to hold back the tears. She looked in her mirror to fix her face and wipe away the potential tears that lingered in her eyes, but instead she saw the bruise on her cheek. Screaming, she hit the dashboard with her fists. Every inch of her longed to turn the car around without ever touching the brakes, but she could not. She could not leave her mother.